1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to collapsible display devices and more particularly to a novel display device which can easily be disposed in a flattened position but will assume an upright box-like position when not otherwise restrained.
2. Brief Description Of The Prior Art
Display stands for photographs, with the photographs in place, are often used as gifts. For instance, parents of young children will assemble selected photographs of these children, mount them on a display and send the display with the photographs to their own parents. Such gifts are commonly sent during the holiday season and are also often requested at other times by grandparents desiring to display photos of their grandchildren in their own homes. Photo display stands for use in the above described application and other applications in the past have taken the form of heavy rigid frames supporting boards and protective glass or photo cubes. Photo cubes are often plastic devices have apertures for receiving photographs of a given size and displaying these photographs on the various sides of the cube. They are not actually cubic but are rectangular cuboids. Both framed photo displays and photo cubes have serious drawbacks related to shipping. Thus, a picture frame having a board and protective glass is heavy and fragile. It is therefore expensive to ship and likely to break in transit. Photo cubes are bulky. They occupy much space and are therefore expensive and difficult to package and ship. Moreover, both heavy picture frames and photo cubes are relatively expensive articles.
Attempts have been made in the past to provide less expensive and more easily shipped display means. These attempts have been primarily confined to advertising display means used in commercial settings where the display message can be printed on the display structure itself and the structure can be flattened by skilled workers capable of performing complex operations before insertion in an envelope for shipping. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,267,597; 4,309,835; 2,731,748; 3,775,884; 1,028,147; 990,918; 4,365,432; 2,153,460: 2,601,374; 2,373,074; 2,332,642; and 2,312,644 describe such collapsible displays.
Some of these displays, such as Stadler U.S. Pat. No. 990,918 and Ditzler et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,601,374 show rectangular displays which are self-erecting into a rectangular disposition from a flat disposition. However, Stadler requires a somewhat complex folding operation not easily mastered by a consumer and Ditzler is only a three-sided display not having a back. Thus, an inexpensive, self-erecting, easily flattened, consumer oriented photo display stand has not existed in the past.